A pilot project at The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s (SFPUC) Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant is the first plant in California to demonstrate a new technology that removes phosphorus and other nutrients from wastewater and recycles them into environmentally-safe commercial fertilizer.

The technology was developed by Ostara Nutrient Recovery Technologies Inc. of Vancouver, Canada to help wastewater treatment plants solve environmental problems, increase plant capacity and reduce maintenance costs, while also creating a revenue-producing byproduct named Crystal Green™ .

The Ostara pilot facility began operating in Nov 2008 at the Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant in San Francisco. “The SFPUC is excited to be the first agency in California piloting this new innovative technology, said Tommy T. Moala, Assistant General Manager for the SFPUC Wastewater Enterprise. “We want to lead by example on how wastewater utilities can be sustainable by transforming a waste into something beneficial for all. Another example of where we are doing that is SFGreasecycle, the City’s grease-to-biofuel recycling program.” Phillip Abrary, President and CEO (2005-2017) of Ostara, said many wastewater treatment plants are effective at removing phosphorus and other pollutants and diverting them into a sludge stream of liquids and solids — but are left with the problem of disposing of these nutrients as well as operational challenges created because these nutrients can form a concrete-like scale, called “struvite”, in pipes and equipment at the treatment plant. This in turn results in costly maintenance procedures required to remove or prevent the scale from forming.

“In the case of SFPUC’s Southeast Wastewater Treatment Plant, our reactor integrates into the wastewater treatment system, processes the sewage sludge liquids, which would otherwise clog up pipes, to recover and decrease the phosphorus levels on average by 85 per cent – and then converts them into a high-quality environmentally-friendly commercial fertilizer that can generate revenue for the municipality,” said Abrary.